Church of the Company of Jesus of Quito, history of its construction elements
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18861/ania.2025.15.2.3972Keywords:
Lime mortars, Gypsum mortars, Andesite, History of the construction, Quito cultural heritage, Church of the company of Jesus of QuitoAbstract
The Church of the Company of Jesus in Quito, built between 1605-1765, is one of the most notable examples of Latin American Baroque religious architecture, a place of worship and exhibition of religious art of the viceregal era. In 160 years, three construction phases can be identified and by 1765 the stone facade had a lime mortar coating that mimics marble, known as 'jasper'.
Several types of mortar were used in the construction, prior to the installation of the altarpieces that we know today, these coatings are the objective of this research and to establish their composition, to contribute to the understanding of the constructive chronology of the church.
A total of 17 coating samples were examined, 14 correspond to coating mortars of the interior of the temple and 3 correspond to the superficial stone façade, extracted with the protocols and less invasive norms suggested by the research team; the samples include stereoscopic microscopy studies that were complemented with mineral characterization and quantitative analysis by X-ray diffraction; as well as polarized light optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy with microanalysis, among others.
The laboratory results demonstrated the presence of lime and gypsum mortars, and gypsum mortars with carbonated aggregate, these elements have a volcanic mineralogical and metamorphic volcanic composition, which allowed us to corroborate them within the construction stages recorded in the church.
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